Those of the Persians combined use with beauty. Xeno phon, in his Economics, makes Socrates say of the Persian king, " Wherever he resides, or whatever place he visits in his dominions, he takes care that the gardens called para dises, shall be filled with every thing both beautiful and useful the soil can produce." Memorab. Socratis, lib. v. p. 829. Lysander finds the younger Cyrus in his paradise at Sardis. As he avows to the Spartan general, that " he planted the whole himself," it seems to have been of a more simple description. But another paradise at Celenx was very extensive, and abounded with wild beasts; and we are informed, that the same prince there mustered the Grecian forces, to the number of thirteen thousand." De Cyri Expeditione, lib. i. Aulus Gellius informs us, that the vivarium, or park of the Romans, which contained game and wild beasts, was the same as the paradise of tee Greeks. The Greeks, there can be little doubt, would in this, as in other particulars, copy from the Persians.
The trees in the Persian gardens, were arranged in straight lines and angular figures, and the ground was cov ered with tufts of roses and odoriferous flowers. The kings themselves often assisted, as we have seen, in their culture with their own hands. A considerable variety of trees were introduced, among which the plane and the re sinous tribe seem to have held conspicuous places. The Persian gardens, described by modern travellers, differ little from the accounts derived from ancient writers. Fi guerosa, who was ambassador from the court of Spain to that of Persia, in 1617, informs us, that at Schiraz, the royal garden was so large that it appeared like a forest, the trees consisting of cypress, planes, and elms, which were planted in squares and avenues, intermingled with thickets of roses. The fruits were grapes, pears, pistachio nuts, and almonds. In the middle was a large and beautiful lake." Dailies Barrington in Archeelogia, vol. vii. p. 114 Chardiu, Le Bruyn, Sir John Malcolm, and other modern travellers, add nothing material to the above features of an ancient and modern Persian garden.
Turning from Asia to Africa, we find only the fabulous gardens of the Hesperides. They are ranked by Pliny with those of Alcinous and Semiramis, (Nat. Hist. lib. xix. c. 4.) and described.by Scylax as situated to the east of Berenice, in Cyrenaica, and lying in a place eighteen fathoms deep, steep on all sides, and two stadia in diameter, covered with trees of various kinds, planted very close together, and in terwoven with one another." Historical View of the Gar dens of Antiquity, t7c. p. 29. Among the fruit trees, were apples, pomegranates, mulberries, vines, olives, almonds, and walnuts ; and the ornamental trees included the arbutus, myrtle, bay, ivy, and wild olive.
Little is known of the private gardens of the Greeks, though it is more than probable, that, from their con nection with Asia, they would imitate, as far as the dif ference of climate and other circumstances would per mit, the paradises or gardens of the Assyrians and Per sians. This supposition appears justified, from the admi ration which Xenophon, a Greek philosopher of the fourth century before Christ, expresses for the gardens of Cyrus at Sardis. We are informed by Diogenes Laertius, that Epicurus delighted in the pleasures of a garden, and made choice of it for his school of philosophy. Plato lays the scene of his dialogue on beauty in an umbrageous spot on the banks of the Illisus : from which proof of his taste for the beauties of natural scenery, it may not be too much to infer, that something of wildness and irregularity might have been sometimes admitted in Grecian paradises, as well as art and uniformity.
The Academus, or public garden of Athens, Plutarch informs us, was originally a rough uncultivated spot till planted by the General Cimon, who conveyed streams of water to it, and laid it out in shady groves, with gymnasia, or places of exercise, and philosophic walks. Among the trees, were the olive, plane, and elm, which had attained to such extraordinary size, that at the siege of Athens by Sylla, in the war with Mithridates, they were selected to be cut down, to supply warlike engines. In the ac count of these gardens by Pausanias, we learn, that they were highly elegant, and decorated with temples, altars, tombs, statues, monuments, and towers ; that among the tombs, were those of Pirithous, Theseus, CEdipus, and Adrastes ; and at the entrance was the first altar dedicated to love. In the first eclogue of Theocritus, the scene is laid under the shade of a pine tree ; and the beauty of Helen is compared to a cypress in a garden. It would appear from this and other circumstances, that the love of Terebinthinate trees, so general in Asia, was also pre valent in Greece ; and the same flowers were probably cultivated in both countries. The narcissus was com mon to both, as also the ivy and the rose. It may be remarked generally, respecting the Asiatic and Grecian gardens of these early ages, that forest trees were chiefly cultivated for their shade, fruit trees for their produce, and flowers for their odour. At any rate, it does not ap pear that mere beauty of form or foliage entered into their idea of excellence.